Did you know that on almost every day of the year, at least one member of the New York Yankee's all-time roster celebrates a birthday? The posts of the Pinstripe Birthday Blog celebrate those birthdays and offer personal recollections, career highlights, and trivia questions that will bring back memories and test your knowledge of the storied history of the Bronx Bombers.

December 2- Happy Birthday Don Brennan

For the second day in a row, we celebrate the birthday of a Yankee that few Yankee fans have ever heard of. James Donald Breslin was born in Augusta, Maine on December 2, 1903. After a great collegiate pitching career at Georgetown University, he began his Minor League career in 1926 by going 11-5 with the Lewiston Twins of the B-level New England League. In 1932, he went 26-8 for the Newark Bears, who were the Yankee’s International League affiliate at the time.

That was good enough to give him a trial with the parent club the following season. Brennan became the fifth starter for Manager Joe McCarthy’s 1933 Yankees in a rotation that included two future Hall of Famers Red Ruffing and Lefty Gomez plus Johnny Allen and Russ Van Atta. Brennan got ten starts that year and won five of six decisions. McCarthy also used him out of the bullpen in eight additional games and the right- hander stuck around to finish six of those contests and earn three saves.

That first-year performance caught the attention of the Cincinnati Reds who made an offer to purchase Brennan in March of 1935 that the Yankees did not refuse. He then became a busy, somewhat effective member of Cincinnati’s bullpen for the next three plus seasons. After a short stint with the Giants in 1937, his big league career was over. Brennan does hold a Major League record. His 21 career victories are the most ever for any pitcher born in Augusta, Maine. Of course, Brennan is the only big league pitcher to be born in Augusta. He shares a birthday with this long-ago Yankee second baseman.

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